As something of an online troublemaker, I've received quite a lot of angry comments recently. These have come on my own platform, on Substack, and in their thousands on YouTube. Anybody reading those comments would think I'd done some utterly horrific things. And yet, I haven't done anything but write.

Let's take a look at what I've said:

• I'm a MAP, attracted to boys aged eight to fourteen.
• I'm a teacher.
• I'm philosophically pro-choice, but do not have sex with my students due to the sociolegal consequences for both adult and child.

Far from being evil, I feel I've demonstrated incredible resilience and self-control. By doing both MAP activism and teaching at the same time, I've not allowed society to dictate who and what I can be. By not having sex with students, I've demonstrated a level of self-control that most non-MAPs think impossible. This should be inspirational, not controversial.

Of course, people will say that it's reckless to put myself in a position where I'm around children. I would firmly contend that it's not. I'm not a sex-crazed maniac like they apparently are. I really fear for junior workers under bosses or managers who claim that people will inevitably groom or molest those over whom they have power!

Let's consider three reasons - and this is far from an exhaustive list - why people might be so hysterically opposed to my commentary:

1. They enjoy having a folk devil to jeer at

People enjoy having an 'enemy below them', to make themselves feel better about whatever it is that renders them unhappy or insecure in their own lives. The enemy is supposed to stay hidden except when tied to a stake, to grovel for pity and forgiveness, to run away in a manner that excites the hunter's prey drive. By being so brash and unapologetic about being a MAP teacher, my commentary disrupts the equilibrium. The 'enemy below' fighting back enrages and frightens them. We see this with "make pedos afraid again" comments, both here and on YouTube.

2. They can't control their sexual urges

I wrote in a previous short take about how our detractors are basically calling themselves rapists. I believe they genuinely feel they would molest a child if they were a MAP, knowing they have little control over their sexual impulses, otherwise why would they accuse me of such? There's no evidence that MAPs are inherently lacking in self-control. These detractors are wrongly projecting their self-control problems onto me.

3. Being 'uncategorizable' is frightening

As a MAP who works with children, and expresses pro-choice views but doesn't act on them, I am something that is 'not allowed' to exist. This terrifies people, like an apparition that can't be explained away scientifically. It haunts them. A lady on Substack literally told me she wished I'd "just go away", presumably so she wouldn't be confronted by a concept that was beyond her understanding. A failed petition to have self-identified MAPs removed from Twitter says it all.

It is both sad and hilarious that I'm becoming an online hate figure simply because I force people to accept a concept they refuse. For all their anger, including death threats and claims that I'm the most evil man in the world, you'd think I was torturing kittens rather than simply teaching kids and writing articles.